Islamic Circle of North America

Islam­ic Cir­cle of North Amer­i­ca (ICNA) was found­ed in 1968 by South Asian Mus­lim immi­grants in the Unit­ed States and for­mal­ly adopt­ed its cur­rent name and con­sti­tu­tion in 1977. The orga­ni­za­tion presents itself as a grass­roots reli­gious and char­i­ta­ble body ded­i­cat­ed to Islam­ic edu­ca­tion, social ser­vices, and com­mu­ni­ty engage­ment, but its foun­da­tion­al ide­ol­o­gy and struc­ture have long reflect­ed the influ­ence of Jamaat-e-Isla­mi (JI), the South Asian Islamist move­ment estab­lished by Abul A’la Maudu­di. Ana­lysts and researchers have iden­ti­fied ICNA as the prin­ci­pal North Amer­i­can affil­i­ate or ide­o­log­i­cal coun­ter­part of Jamaat-e-Isla­mi, shar­ing its objec­tive of estab­lish­ing Islam as a com­pre­hen­sive social and polit­i­cal sys­tem. The orga­ni­za­tion has also been cit­ed as part of the wider Mus­lim Brotherhood–influenced net­work of Islamist move­ments active in North Amer­i­ca, with over­lap­ping lead­er­ship, coop­er­a­tion in con­fer­ences, and shared rhetoric regard­ing the imple­men­ta­tion of Islam­ic gov­er­nance. While ICNA con­ducts exten­sive char­i­ta­ble and edu­ca­tion­al work through its divi­sions, such as ICNA Relief and Why­Is­lam, its doc­tri­nal foun­da­tions and affil­i­a­tions place it with­in the broad­er Islamist cur­rent rather than a pure­ly civic or reli­gious framework.

Sources:
Islam­ic Cir­cle of North Amer­i­ca – Wikipedia
Islam­ic Cir­cle of North Amer­i­ca – InfluenceWatch
Islam­ic Fun­da­men­tal­ists in North Amer­i­ca – IslamicPluralism.org
Islam­ic Cir­cle of North Amer­i­ca – Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood Watch
Jamaat-e-Isla­mi – Wikipedia